Blueprint Glossary

A

Actor

An actor can be any person, role, organization, application, system, and so on, that interacts with the system being modeled.

Actor Inherit

An actor inherit is a manually formed relationship between two actor artifacts.

Administration Portal

The Administration Portal allows Blueprint Administrators to manage users, groups, and projects, as well as edit instance email settings.

Administrators can also add and manage workflows in the Administration Portal.

Artifact

An artifact is the overarching term used to describe all individual assets within Blueprint. Artifacts come in many different forms, and span the entire software development lifecycle – allowing you to define solutions, align stakeholder needs, understand impacts, and, ultimately, drive effective execution of products.

Artifact Property

An artifact property refers to the descriptive data that is associated with an artifact or sub-artifact. All artifacts and sub-artifacts have default system properties. These default system properties vary depending on the type of artifact or sub-artifact.

Artifacts can also have standard properties (configured by instance administrators) and/or custom properties (configured by project administrators). Sub-artifacts can have custom properties as well, which are configured by project administrators.

Author

A project role in Blueprint where users can create, edit, trace, and comment on artifacts. It does not contain any delete privileges.

B

Base Type

Every artifact type, whether custom or standard, has a base type associated with it. Base types determine the editor that is used for each kind of artifact.

Baseline Artifact

A baseline artifact is a snapshot in time of one or more artifacts in a project. Baselines provide you with a reference point for viewing project artifacts as they existed at a particular point in time, even after the artifacts have changed. Baseline artifacts can be included in reviews to obtain feedback and approval.

Business Process Mode

In Business Process mode in the Process Editor, system tasks (that is, system responses to a user action or a precondition for a following user action) are hidden but still exist.

C

Canvas

The canvas is the main white area of the Universal Model Editor. This is the visible area, meaning that what you create here will be displayed as the image for that model artifact.

Collaborator

A project role in Blueprint where users can comment, reply, and vote on artifacts.

Collection Artifacts

Collections are used to group together certain artifacts in your project. They always include live artifacts—that is, the latest published version of the artifact, and artifacts can be added or removed at any time.

Container Shapes

Certain shapes in the Universal Model Editor are containers, meaning they can have other shapes contained within them.

Custom Artifact Type

A custom artifact type refers to an artifact classification in Blueprint. Custom artifact types are associated with individual projects in the instance.

Custom Property

A custom property refers to the descriptive data that is associated with an artifact or sub-artifact. All custom properties are created by project administrators for individual projects.

D

Descendants View

Descendants View allows you to easily view and manage all artifacts at any level with the ability to sort, filter, configure custom columns, edit artifacts in-line, and perform bulk operations on artifacts like bulk edit or reuse.

In Blueprint 12.2, List View was rebranded as Descendants View to provide a more intuitive user experience.

Detail View

By default, all artifacts are displayed in Detail View when an artifact is selected in the Explorer.

Working in Detail View allows you to make changes to your visual artifacts and gives you precision when editing textual artifacts.

Discussions

The Discussions tab in the Utility Panel displays all of an artifact's comments and their associated replies.

Blueprint allows you to add new comments, reply to existing comments, and delete comments or replies. Each comment and reply displays who made the post, when the post was made, and which version of the artifact it is referring to.

Document Artifact

A document artifact allows you to upload a file and then reference that file from multiple artifacts. Document artifacts are added to other artifacts in the Files tab of the Utility Panel, and are then known as document references.

Document Generation

In Blueprint, you can easily generate documents based on customizable templates. This allows you to have an offline record of documents for different audiences, in different formats that can be referenced across any artifact in your workspace, enabling reuse and traceability.

Document Reference

A document reference is an existing document artifact that you can associate with one or more artifacts. A document reference relationship is formed between a document artifact whenever another artifact references it in the Files tab. 

Domain Diagram

A domain diagram is generally used for problem analysis. A domain diagram shows the major pieces of information (entities), what they’re composed of (elements), and how the information is related to each other. It uses relationship notation similar to Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) used to model data schemas. Domain diagrams are sometimes referred to as domain models, information diagrams, information models, or conceptual data models.

E

Epic

An epic artifact is a large user story that can be separated into smaller user stories.

Excel Import

In Blueprint new artifacts can also be created with an Excel import.

Explorer

The Explorer is the panel on the left side that allows you to browse and navigate within your projects and folders. It contains a hierarchical list of all the folders and artifacts in your project.

F

Feature

A feature is a service that provides value to a customer by fulfilling their needs. Feature artifacts can be used as high-level categories to organize other artifacts, such as epics and user stories.

Federated Authentication

Federated authentication is the practice of allowing an external system to provide authentication services for another application. This goes beyond acting as a repository for credentials, but actually acting as the system which validates authentication attempts. One example of a federated authentication technology includes SAML.

File Attachment

A file attachment is a file that you upload and associate with a single artifact.

Folder

A folder is a type of artifact that can contain any other type of artifact. Folders, like artifacts, can be organized in a hierarchy allowing you to better organize your artifacts.

Follow Up Review

Using a follow up review, you can quickly create a new review artifact based on an existing closed review with the same review contents and the same review participants.

The review participants's view state, approvals and disapprovals are carried over into the new review. Review participants can see what, if any, artifacts changed in the Review Experience. The author of the review can modify the contents and review participants, if desired.

Formal Review

Formal Reviews are also Private Reviews, as they have both artifacts and participants. A Review is Formal if there is at least one Approver and one artifact needing approval.

G

Generic Diagram

A generic diagram refers to a diagram that was created using Blueprint's Generic Diagram Editor.

Global Actions

The main toolbar in the Explorer contains several icons that allow you to perform global actions on all artifacts in your project such as Publish All or Refresh All.

Glossary Artifact

A Glossary artifact is a compilation of terms and definitions. Glossary terms can be linked from other artifacts, providing readers with easy access to definitions.

Glossary Reference

Glossary terms can be referenced when used to define other artifacts in the repository, providing users with quick, easy access to clarity and consistency.

Group

A Group in Blueprint is a set of users that can be assigned a particular project role.

H

History Tab

The History tab in the Utility Panel displays a table with historical information for an artifact.

I

Impact Analysis

An Impact Analysis illustrates the effect of change exerted by an artifact on its related artifacts. This allows for an understanding of the full impact of change, and the ability to estimate time and resources more accurately.

Any artifact can be used as the starting point of Impact Analysis.

Informal Review

An informal review allows reviewers to view and comment on live artifacts in the review.

Inline Trace

An inline trace creates a relationship between two artifacts and adds an inline hyperlink, allowing readers to click the link to open the traced artifact. In addition to the hyperlink creation, the traced artifact also appears below the Relationships tab in the Utility Panel.

Instance Administrator

An Instance Administrator is a user that has been assigned specific role privileges at the topmost administration level (that is, the instance). Instance Administrator roles are customizable and can vary in their privileges.

Intelligent Recommendations

The Intelligent Recommendations tab in the Utility Panel lists the top 10 artifacts (and their containing project) in your system that are determined to be the most similar to the one that is currently in the main content area.

The Intelligent Recommendations feature helps you discover other relevant artifacts and uncovers opportunities for artifact re-use.

J

Jobs

In Blueprint, all jobs are stored in the Jobs list​. This list contains a history of all jobs — any actions involving the import and export of data to or from the application.

M

Main Content Area

When you select an item in the Explorer, it is displayed in the main content area, where you view and configure base artifact details.

Merge

In Blueprint, Reuse Merge is a feature that allows you to select the properties, relationships, attachments, sub artifacts, and documents to keep when reconciling artifacts with a reuse relationship.

Model Artifacts

A Model is a base artifact type that you can use to create a variety of different diagrams types, including BPMN.

When you create a new Model artifact, the Universal Model Editor is launched in the main content area. A newly-created Model artifact always starts off with a blank canvas.

P

Post Condition

A post condition lists the state(s) that will always be true at the completion of the Process step, regardless of the path or scenario followed.

Pre Condition

A pre condition lists the state(s) that must be true before the Process can begin.

Process Artifacts

A process is a sequence of user actions and system responses that describe a business process or a user-to-system interaction.

The main content area displays the Process Editor while the Utility Panel will display the process's properties, relationships, discussions, files, and history.

Process Editor

A Process is a sequence of user actions that can describe a business process or a user-to-system interaction.

Blueprint's Process Editor allows users to seamlessly model a sequence of user actions and system responses that include images and traces to child user story artifacts. As you model a Process, Blueprint automatically creates and manages relationships between these artifacts and assets.

Project Administrator

A Project Administrator is a user that has been assigned to a project role that contains Project Administrator privileges. Project Administrators are provisioned for individual projects, meaning the Project Administrator may not have Project Administrator privileges for another project.

Project

A project consists of a collection of artifacts. You can open multiple projects at one time. Blueprint supports various cross-project operations. For example, you can perform cross-project tracing and cross-project glossary referencing.

Properties Tab

The Properties tab in the Utility Panel displays all standard and custom artifact and sub-artifact property information such as name, type, description, and when and by whom it was created and last edited.

Publish

Publishing an artifact makes your changes to an artifact available and visible to other users. Users always see the last published version after opening an artifact.

R

Reconcile

Reconcile is a feature in Blueprint that allows you to reconcile an artifact with a reuse relationship by overwriting the artifacts according to the values you want to keep, or by arbitrarily clearing a suspect flag.

Relationships

The Relationships tab in the Utility Panel displays any relationships between the selected artifact and other artifacts in the project. Information available in this tab includes relationship type and direction, and artifact icon, ID, name, and project.

Reply

A reply refers to a comment that is added in response to an existing comment.

Requirement

A requirement is a documented capability or property that a product must possess to provide value to a stakeholder.

Reuse

A feature in Blueprint that allows you to reuse (copy and publish) one or multiple artifacts. When an artifact is reused, a reuse relationship is established and visible for the artifact.

Review Artifact

A review artifact allows you to request artifact feedback and/or approval from stakeholders. Review artifacts can be set to one of two types: informal review (live artifacts), or formal review (baseline artifacts). You can only request approval or electronic signatures on artifacts if they are included in a formal review. If you create an informal review, review participants can add comments to artifacts, but the artifacts cannot be approved.

Review

A reviewer is an individual with permissions to review, but not approve, artifacts included in a review.

Review Experience

The Review Experience refers to the user interface used by review participants. This is a very simple yet powerful interface designed specifically for supporting review participant tasks.

S

SAML

SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) is a technology used to implement federated authentication and single sign on (SSO). SAML provides a secure, XML-based solution for exchanging user security information between an identity provider (your company) and a service provider (Blueprint).

Save

When you create new, or edit existing artifacts, saving your changes creates "private drafts" on the central server that are not visible to other users until you publish them.

Sealed Baseline

A sealed baseline contains a timestamp and contents that can no longer be modified. Sealing a baseline is a manual action performed by a user and once sealed, a baseline can never be unsealed. Only artifacts in sealed baselines can be Approved as part of a review.

Side-by-Side Version Compare

In Blueprint, you can compare two previous versions of artifacts that don't include the most recent version in a side-by-side view to visualize and report on change.

Standard Artifact Type

A standard artifact type refers to a requirement classification in Blueprint. Standard artifact types are associated with all projects in the instance.

Standard Property

A standard property refers to the descriptive data that is associated with an artifact or sub-artifact. Standard properties are configured by instance administrators with the applicable privileges and apply to all projects within an instance.

Status Indicators

An artifact can have different statuses that provide further context on the artifact.

An artifact's status is displayed at the top of the main content area, beside the artifact name. The following are all possible statuses, their icons, and descriptions.

Steal a Lock

Blueprint has a locking mechanism built into the platform to ensure that two users cannot change the same artifact at the same time and guarantee that you are always opening and editing the latest version of an artifact.

An artifact is locked by a user when it is modified but not published. The lock is released when the artifact is published.

Suspect Trace

A suspect trace is a flag on an existing trace relationship that generally indicates one of the related artifacts has changed, and that the related artifacts should be analyzed for possible impacts.

System Property

A system property is a default property defined automatically by the system for the artifact. System properties cannot be deleted, but can be modified by administrators, in some cases.

T

Test Case

In Blueprint, you can generate test cases from a Process in a job called Process Test Case Generation. When prompted, Blueprint will create a CSV file detailing all the possible flows in a Process. This file can then be exported to an ALM target.

Textual Requirement

A textual requirement artifact is a documented property or capability that a product must possess to provide value to a stakeholder. In this case, the requirement is documented in a textual (as opposed to visual) form.

Trace

A trace is a type of relationship between two artifacts or sub-artifacts. Traces are used to establish and define the direction of a relationship.

Traceability Matrix

A traceability matrix (or gap analysis) allows users to identify the traces, links, or gaps between a specified set of artifacts.

You can create a traceability matrix outside the Blueprint interface by using Analytics, in conjunction with most BI (Business Intelligence) tools like Microsoft Excel’s PowerPivot.

U

UI Mockup

A UI Mockup is a prototype of a user interface in the system. UI mockups are effective on a standalone basis, but are even more powerful when they are viewed in simulations.

Universal Model Editor

The Universal Model Editor enables you to quickly create a variety of detailed diagrams and models, including BPMN diagrams.

Each shape in the diagram or model you create is its own artifact and can have its own traces, discussions or attachments. Model artifacts are great visual references for stakeholders and a powerful way to communicate solution intent.

Unsealed Baseline

When a baseline is unsealed, you are able to modify the contents. While artifacts in an unsealed baseline can be viewed and commented on as part of a review, they cannot be Approved.

User Story

A user story is a high-level requirement that can be passed to development. User stories are generally synced to task-management tools (such as JIRA, Rally, or TFS), so that they can be tasked and managed during development and test cycles.

You can effortlessly generate user stories in Blueprint from the Processes you create in the Process Editor. 

User Story Artifacts

When you generate a user story from a task, a user-story artifact is also created. This textual artifact is created as a child artifact of the Process.

User-System Process Mode

In User-System Process mode in the Process Editor, a. task is always tied to, and accompanied by, a responding system task. Whenever you add a task to a Process, an accompanying system task is also created.

Utility Panel

The Utility Panel includes more detailed information about a selected artifact, such as properties, relationships, discussions, files, and history. This panel slides open and closed, and is located on the right-hand side of the Blueprint interface.

V

Version Compare

Version Compare is a feature in Blueprint that gives you the ability to streamline artifact analysis accurately with changes visualized between versions. It also promotes full control management with the ability to revert or merge artifact versions.

Version Restore

Version Restore is a feature in Blueprint that allows you to fully restore a previous version of an artifact or pick and choose individual properties or attributes to restore.

Viewer

A project role in Blueprint where users can view artifacts.

W

Walkthrough

In Blueprint, you can initiate a walkthrough to view your user stories in the context of an entire Process. The Walkthrough view puts you in the perspective of a user interacting with the system responses.

All your generated user stories are laid out consecutively, with UI mockups at the center of the view. This makes it easier to imagine how the Process will actually work, and pinpoint any issues a user might have with it.

Windows User

A Windows User is a user that is created using information from your Active Directory. You cannot change Windows User details in Blueprint, such as the name and password of the user. These details must be changed in the Active Directory. Windows users must choose Windows Authentication to login to Blueprint.

Workflow

A Workflow represents one of many different types of processes within your organization.

As a representation of a project, artifacts move through a relevant life cycle, transitioning from one state to the next, until the process has reached an outcome.

Workflow Canvas

The Workflow Canvas is a visual workspace where you can model Workflows.